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Why You Should Wait till the Last Minute to do Everything
By Carlon Haas | August 13, 2007
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Ever since I was a young boy, I’ve heard the same thing over and over again:
“You put everything off till the last minute.”
Of course, for years I’ve struggled with this problem. Everybody from parents, teachers, girlfriends, friends, spouse, and heck even my soon-to-be-4-year old tells me I wait too long to do things. In other words, I’m a procrastinator.
They’re mostly right. I tend to do everything at the last minute. When I was in collage. Study for a test? If I could ever be bothered to study, I did it last minute. Reports? The day before it was due. When I got a real job? The hour before it was due.
To hear everyone tell it, this must be a big problem.
To hear Wikipedia tell it (everything in Wikipedia just has to be accurate), this is either a symptom of my ADD or depression.
But there’s only one problem with the Wikipeida diagnosis.
I’m not particularly depressed. In fact, my easy-going, happy-go-lucky nature is annoying to many people, though in all fairness, admired by some. And I have been known to be able concentrate on things. So, in lieu of seeing a professional whose job it is to diagnose me with all sorts of problems, I am left with only one option…
Embracing my procrastination.
That’s right. I am embracing it. But there’s a reason for this.
I’ve always gotten things done. All those “time management” people tell me that I need to go through some elaborate rituals so I can do more work. But the thing is if I can get it done in an hour, why should I spend all stinkin’ day working on it?
Now, I’m not advocating waiting till the last minute and NOT getting it done. But the question here is: why is it necessarily bad to wait till the last minute to do something if you can get it done at the last minute? Most of us are told we have to do things well in advance. But I seriously question that wisdom.
And this brings me to the point of today’s blog post: Parkinson’s Law. Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” In other words, if you’re given 5 days to finish a project, it will take 5 days. If given 2 hours, it will take 2 hours.
I KNOW this is true. Once when I worked for a publishing company I was given 3 months to write an entire series of educational books—from conception to finished product. Well, let me be more specific, I was actually given short 72-hour deadlines to finish parts of the series. Did I finish it on time? You better believe I did. And did I work overtime to do it? You better believe I didn’t! I finished it EXACTLY when they needed it all within my shift.
And what was the result? Those books are now being used in over 250 schools in
One more example—this blog. Although I am a brilliant procrastinator, I write 5 days worth of material every Sunday and set it up in advance to go out each day. I give myself a set amount of time on Sunday to get it done. If I give myself 2 hours to do it, I can do it in 2 hours. If I give myself 10 hours, it will take 10 hours.
So, why not make Parkinson’s Law work for you instead of against you? Here are two ways I have found to do it:
#1 Give yourself a firm deadline.
This way I know when I have to do a project. Like this blog, I give myself a Sunday at 11:00 PM
#2 Batch your work
I am usually busy with my personal pursuits to have to take time out every day to do routine tasks. So, typically, rather than spreading out daily tasks, I do them all at once. As I explained about this blog, I do 5 posts at a time. This way it gets done at once in a set block of time.
Mind you, this is NOT multi-tasking. This is setting aside time to do ONE thing.
Using these two methods has allowed me to embrace my procrastination and at the same time undermine any negative effects it might have on me. By setting firm deadlines and doing a set amount of work at once, I am more efficient.
So, people might still try to lecture me about procrastination. But the truth is I get things done. And if you too have a problem with procrastination, don’t pay hundreds or thousands of dollars (in money or in time) on courses on time management. Simply, give yourself firm deadlines and perform a single task in a given time.
This way you don’t have to try to re-invent yourself. You can make your tendency to procrastinate work for you instead of against you utilizing Parkinson’s Law.
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Topics: Personal Development, Productivity, Time Management |
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2 Responses to “Why You Should Wait till the Last Minute to do Everything”
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August 14th, 2007 at 11:36 pm
I’m really liking this Parkinson’s Law thing… it’s frankly the way I think a great many folks would live their lives if given the knowledge.
August 14th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Yes, I agree. I intend to write on more applications of this law in future posts.